SEC bares action On Scams
By JAMES LOYOLA
November 17, 2012, 7:57pm
MANILA, Philippines --- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
said yesterday it has been sending teams around the country to educate
and warn people about pseudo-investment schemes that still crop up and
scam people of billions of pesos.
SEC Commission Secretary Gerard M. Lukban said the SEC fields teams on
its own or speaks before various industry groups and provincial chambers
of commerce.
Lukban said in the case of Aman Futures Group Philippines Inc., the SEC
acted on its own initiative to shut down the operations of the firm even
if there were no complaints filed against the company yet.
"There were no complaints. We just received some queries and decided to
conduct an investigation. We were alarmed when we found out that the
company already has collected investments of a quarter of a billion
pesos even before it had a license," Lukban said.
He said based on the admissions of Aman Futures' officials, the firm had
been operating without a license from the SEC and this prompted the
commission to immediately issue an advisory followed by a cease and
desist order.
"We warned people about their modus operandi," Lukban said, adding that
this could be just the tip of the iceberg since some of the duped
investors may choose to keep their silence for fear of staining their
reputation.
Like many before it, Aman Futures employed the so-called Ponzi scheme
which is an fraudulent investment scheme that pays unusually high
returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by
subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual
or organization running the operation.
SEC records show that there have been 13 major Ponzi schemes since 2001
which were investigated by the SEC and forwarded to the Justice
Department for the filing of criminal charges.
Meanwhile, Malacañang appealed yesterday to the thousands of victims of
the Aman Futures investment scam in some parts of Mindanao not to take
the law in their hands amid the ongoing investigation into the matter.
Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the government is
already taking actions, citing Interior and Local Government Secretary
Manuel Roxas II's earlier move to relieve Zamboanga del Sur Provincial
PNP Director Senior Supt. William T. Manzan and Pagadian City Chief of
Police Supt. Kenneth H. Mission in connection with the "get-rich-quick"
scheme.
Valte noted that victims include ordinary citizens like tricycle drivers
who have invested their life's savings.
"What we would want to prevent is that the investors themselves will
take the law into their own hands. So security has been tightened in
these places," Valte said in an interview with government radio dzRB as
she appealed form calm from the victims.
"Let the investigation take its course. Let authorities go after the
suspects. And don't allow your emotions to overcome you and do something
that would result to another problem," Valte appealed to the victims,
speaking in Filipino. (With a report from JC Bello Ruiz)
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